Clinical Director

Dawn-Marie Steenstra has always been a passionate patient advocate. At the age of 21, she opened an assisted living facility and spent 21 years caring for elderly, primarily deinstitutionalized psychiatric patients. She worked with Maryland state regulators during the crafting of the state’s original assisted living regulations and was the ONLY Licensed Practical Nurse in the State permitted to oversee her own facility as a Designating Nurse. Since 1996, she has also specialized in staff development, quality assurance, infection control, gerontology, hospice and palliative care.

She completed  her first Certification in  Cannabis Competency  in  Nursing  Practice  in  2012 through The Cannabis Training Institute and  has  actively  been  a liaison  for  Americans  for Safe  Access’s  “Patient  Focused  Certification”  that were adopted by Maryland’s Commission as a model  for  compliance  and  best practices for our program.  She completed  the  ASA  training  course  for  Washington  DC  dispensary owners and Patient Focused Certification modules in testing and dispensary operations. She also has completed competencies from the American Cannabis Nurses Association in “Cannabinoid Therapeutics in Nursing Practice “and United Patients Group” Cannabis-Pharmacology & Toxicology” most recently.

In fact,  Dawn-Marie was an original board  member  of  the  American  Cannabis  Nurses Association from 2012-2015, a founding member of The Cannabis Nurses Network and Speakers Bureau and  is  currently  National  Ambassador  for  “United  Patients  Group”,  the nation’s  leading cannabis  patient  resource  organization. In 2018, she was privileged to co-produce “The Sacred Plant” docuseries Season 2 with John Malanca, founder of United Patients Group.

Since it’s  very inception, she has worked diligently with members of the Maryland Natalie LaPrade Medical Cannabis Commission in education and bringing top medical conferences to Baltimore to train physicians and pharmacists in cannabinoid therapeutics. She worked tirelessly to have Cannabis Nurses recognized for their unique qualifications as Clinical Directors of Dispensaries and was honored to be the very FIRST Cannabis Nurse approved in the State of Maryland along with 8 others to do so, alongside physicians and pharmacists! She is now CEO of Entourage Consulting Services overseeing multiple dispensaries in staff education and patient navigation with comorbid conditions and polypharmacy in their unique journeys.

Her vision is that nurses have a unique place in cannabinoid therapeutics to assist in the development of best practices, quality assurance and continuity in processing medicines for patients.
Dawn-Marie’s motto is: “Every patient deserves Nature’s Healing Touch.”